Shopcreator catch up with founder and owner Dave Clayton to chat about his fast track success seen with Shopcreator's Transact and Retailer platform.

SC: Can you tell me a little bit about Big Laces?
BL: Big Laces (originally Tha Lace Place) started out on eBay in 2006 with the intention of providing retro shoelaces to a niche market. Sales grew, the range expanded and we now aim to provide a large range of shoelaces to an increasingly diverse customer base, whilst still retaining control of the retro shoelace market.

SC: Did you look at any other e-Commerce platforms aside from Shopcreator?
BL: Our original eCommerce provider was 1&1 Internet. We had a brief overlap of a few months to compare them and Shopcreator side by side but their customer service level and usability of the admin system fell far short of SC's so we decided to make the switch as soon as was practicable.

SC: Why did you choose Shopcreator for the Big Laces Site?
BL: From the free months trial we experienced very good looking site templates, a great admin system (although the manual could do with updating as not all aspects are covered in it), and very quick and thorough customer service which for an SME like us is invaluable.

SC: You initially began on our free Transact platform .Why did you decide to upgrade to the Retailer platform?
BL: We realised quickly that Shopcreator would provide us with a medium/long term solution for our exact needs. Although it costs a bit more per month, the added bonuses of the extra site features (FTP and discounts particularly) meant Retailer was a viable alternative to Transact.

SC: Why do you feel the need to sell online?
BL: To reach a niche market it was really the only way to do it.

SC: What were your online aim and objectives of the site?
BL: To provide an easy experience for the customer and in the not too distant future offer a valuable resource for information about shoelaces.

SC: Did you have any specific requirements for the site?
BL: Nothing above the usual requirements – the ability to display a good range of pictures and easy path through to sale.

SC: How did you find the Retailer platform in terms of usability and content management?
BL: Excellent. Other than needing explanations on a few of the aspects that are missing from the manual, it is very intuitive and extremely user friendly.

SC: What are the main benefits the site provides you with?
BL: Ease of use for amending pages/products etc.

SC: Have you ever needed much assistance and support from Shopcreator?
BL: Quite a bit in the early days when getting to grips with the basics of the system and the speed and quality of the responses we got were one of the main reasons we decided to go with SC in the longer term.

SC: What marketing activity do you carry out to promote the sites (if any)?
BL: Google PPC, Specialist site advertising, but mainly word of mouth......

SC: Do you track traffic to the website using the built in analytical tools?
BL: Yes, and we also use Google Analytics.

SC: What are Big Laces' future plans going forward?
BL: We aim within 5 years to be the leading online Business to Person shoelace retailer in the UK. Our medium term goal is to improve our site to increase conversions by 100% in 2 years, and we will expand our product range to help achieve this.

You can view Big Laces website at www.biglaces.com

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Matthew Briggs, Project Leader at Shopcreator has recently setup a new business venture called The Traditional Shaving Company using Shopcreators very own Retailer platform. Alex from Shopcreator's marketing team catches up with Matt to find out more.

Alex: Why did you feel the need to sell online?
Matt: I wanted to start a business selling traditional shaving products. Because this is a niche market and wouldn't be a full time business it wasn't practical to open a bricks and mortar shop. By going online I had very little start-up costs and gained immediate international exposure.

Alex: : Whilst you work for an ecommerce company, did you look at any other platforms on the market?
Matt:I have looked at other e-commerce platforms in the past but I knew Shopcreator's Retailer product would support everything I needed. It didn't make sense to look elsewhere.

Alex:Why did you choose Shopcreator?
Matt:Because it is a hosted service it took much less effort to setup than it might have done if I had needed 3rd party hosting. I also had very strict requirements on how I wanted the site to appear visually and with the flexible, customisable template system I was able to completely reproduce my concept designs.

Alex:Did you have a specific aim/objective you wanted to achieve with the website?
Matt:I wanted a professional looking and easy to navigate site and the feedback I have had so far suggests I have achieved this. I also wanted to get good Google rankings as I believe that will drive a lot of my sales but it will take a bit of time before I know if this has been successful.

Alex:How many products do you sell online?
Matt:At the moment the site has about 120 products online but I hope to add more and more as the site grows.

Alex:What kind of functionality has been integrated into your website?
Matt:I have advanced order status management so that my customers are emailed when their orders have been picked and again when they are despatched. I also have product features that allow customers to customise their product details on certain products. Other than that I have kept the site very simple to use so I didn't really need anything else.

Alex:Have you carried out any marketing or SEO activity to drive traffic to the site?
Matt: I have tried to build my pages in a SEO friendly way by using clean HTML and appropriate use of header tags. I have also tried to add as much content to the site as possible as this is the number one thing to do to get good rankings in Google. When the site has become more established I plan to experiment with Pay Per Click campaigns to see what benefits they provide.

Alex: Do you track traffic to your site?
Matt: Yes I use the integrated Google Analytics tool. It's been great to see exactly where in the world my traffic has been coming from. Almost half of my traffic has been from the US and I have had visitors from all around the world including Japan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and all throughout Europe.

Alex: Have you required any support from the team here?
Matt: Working for Shopcreator I had a huge amount of support internally from the rest of the team. My normal Shopcreator role does not involve setting up new websites so I needed advice on how to setup the templates and how to write SEO HTML code. Luckily for every question I had, so the team always had a good solution.

Alex: Are there any features/benefits that you find particularly useful/beneficial for your new venture?
Matt: The admin system is a great way for me to track my orders and keep on top of the progress and status of each one. I also use Shopcreator to store my stock levels so it manages a lot of my business for me.

Alex: What are your plans going forward for the future?
Matt: My immediate plans are to establish a solid online presence and reputation. Over the next few months I also want to increase the range of products that I offer. And if things go really well then I might think about branching out into other similar retail areas.

Great – thanks for your time Matt and Good Luck!

Art Meets Print is a subsidiary company of award winning 'Art Meets Matter' design agency. Shopcreator catch up with their contributing artist Tony Davis to chat about the launch of their new ecommerce site 'Art Meets Print' and their plans going forward.

Shopcreator: What were you trying to achieve with the new division and ecommerce website?
Art Meets Print: We wanted a new design-lead presence in an industrial marketplace. The world is full of jobbing 'art' printers just sticking stuff on paper and canvas. Art Meets Print approach is different because it connects with a mature existing business supplying leading retailers like Conran, Selfridges, Heal's and Waterstone's. Quality is also important to us at every level. It is only recently that longevity and print quality have gone hand in hand to enable us to achieve art prints demanded by the best customers.

Shopcreator: Did you look at any other e-Commerce platforms aside from Shopcreator?
Art Meets Print: Of course. We already have a number of developed sites since 2002 which support different aspects of our business. We use these to maintain trade relationships and deal globally with end customers directly. No one retailer stocks everything we do so it is important to make all of our design available to anyone worldwide, where possible. When evaluating options it was important to look at all the players. We do this for every aspect of our business and price is only one component of factors affecting final decisions.

Shopcreator: Why did you choose Shopcreator for the site?
Art Meets Print We needed a company with a track record and solid history in template driven e-commerce. It was also important that they had commercial relationships with larger companies as evidence that they could provide development paths, solid support and critical up-time demanded by larger businesses, but also vital for us. The sales team also provided us with a good window of air-time to test whether the platform would be up to the job prior to commitment on development of the Art Meets Print site. It was also important that there weren't loads of expensive 'add-ons' to provide the functionality we thought we were getting in the first place. Your monthly fee is it.

Shopcreator: Why do you feel the need to sell online?
Art Meets Print: It's the best way to show 1000s of our designs. Everything we sell has a customer. This is more true of our Art Meets Print concept than any other. We need to present this variety globally to anyone who'd like to pay for the designs. Obviously, we also generate higher margins on products created for sale in this way than for wholesale business.

Shopcreator: As this site is newly launched, do you plan to carry out any marketing activity to drive traffic to the website?
Art Meets Print: We have a substantial email database which includes the best retailers, world press and of course, all of our existing and past customers (whether business or direct). We will talk to them over the next months as the site fills with new work. We will also be using Twitter to send tiny updates on work as it is posted to the site. This is also invaluable for the addition of an artist like Steven Appleby for example who has his own following.

Shopcreator: Do you usually track traffic to your websites?
Art Meets Print: We do. In both sophisticated and crude ways. It is testament to our efficiency here that our mailing list grows daily with unexpected opt-ins from all sorts of locations. Our demographic is so broad that even prior to official launch four of our prints are being used in a film set aboard an expensive boat (sorry, can't tell you which one...watch this space). Our PR is self-generated and our work has featured non-stop every month in leading national and lifestyle press for the last seven years. All this drives attention and traffic to our sites. At the end of the day though, the only true metric is sales and we'll use this to measure the true effectiveness of what we're doing.

Shopcreator: How many products do you sell on your site?
Art Meets Print: Our launch will feature over 600 unique prints. Some own-brand, such as the Barack Obama portrait and others like the classic book covers from Penguin Books Ltd and Faber and Faber have a ready audience even before launch. We expect this to grow to over 1000 artworks before the end of 2009. We are about to sign at least two major companies to present new categories on Art Meets Print. These will be added in stages throughout the year.

Shopcreator: How did you find the Retailer platform in terms of usability and content management?
Art Meets Print: It's inevitable that, however simple the platform, you need to get your head around methodology and process. The Retailer platform is easy to use 'out of the box'. We are able to upload large quantities of products automatically via spreadsheets so with basic skills in data handling any SME can create a structured website without the overhead of ongoing web consultant fees. I'd recommend it to anyone who wanted to control and maintain a large and potentially complex series of products in-house.

Shopcreator: Have you ever needed much assistance and support from Shopcreator? If so – how did you find it?
Art Meets Print: We certainly did. The simplest of things can trip you up. However, they were always obliging, friendly and even called back when they said they would - so unusual in the fast and furious world of business to business online. Sometimes our questions were simple and easily solved and others more difficult. We were testing user data entry possibilities for customised prints and this was solved for us within days. There is a direct relationship between support and product development and any good company knows that today's problems become tomorrow's WIBNIS as we used to say – "Wouldn't It Be Nice In Software..." My feeling is that Shopcreator are aware of this link and know that support issues can be used directly to drive innovation.

Shopcreator: What are the main benefits the site provides you with?
Art Meets Print: Ease of set up, scalability, support and not least cost. We know exactly where we are. A dozen sales and our year is paid for. If we want to trial smaller sites for new projects we can even set up a free online shop using the Transact platform to test feasibility. Even the normally nightmarish area of payment services - one of the main reasons people use 'web consultants' - has been pain free and all the integration with our world class payment provider has been incredibly straight forward.

Shopcreator: What are Art Meets Print future plans going forward?
Art Meets Print: Art Meets Print is the first of a new series of product focused sites using a structured provider like Shopcreator. If they keep to their end of the bargain and continue providing great support, system level upgrades, tweaking of functionality and a migration path to even more sophisticated site functionality then I guarantee we will be adding more sites before the end of 2009.

Serious Readers are a dedicated supplier of lighting solutions for discerning readers that require more comfortable lighting. The specialist lighting company was founded twenty years ago as a business to business supplier providing solutions for on board Global Ballooning Attempts, RNLI Lifeboats and the Space Shuttle. In 2005 they launched a B2C arm of the business which was founded by Alex Pratt OBE and have seen significant growth to date. Their vision is to be: "the retailer most often recommended by the over 50's in the UK"

We catch up with them over the launch and ecommerce plans for the future

Shopcreator: Why did you feel the need to sell online?

Serious Readers: We expect 30% of business to come through our website next year – nuff said.

Shopcreator: Did you look at other eCommerce providers before coming to Shopcreator? If yes, why did you choose Shopcreator?

Serious Readers: Yes due to recommendation, good reputation and known compatibility with existing software.

Shopcreator: Did you have a specific aim/objective you wanted to achieve? Serious Readers: To build a world class website of which we can be proud – one that enhances the Serious brand and is consistent with our other customer touch points.

Shopcreator: What marketing activity have you carried out in the past or that you do currently?

Serious Readers: Advertising, inserts, customer mailings and cold mailings Shopcreator: Have you required any support from us, if so how did you find the level of support?

Serious Readers: Yes and we've been very impressed with the quality and speed of the response.

Shopcreator: Are there any features/benefits that you find particularly useful/beneficial for the business?

Serious Readers: The biggest benefit is the fact that amendments can be made easily and quickly by myself without having to submit lengthy request forms which we used to do. Another benefit is the great customer support you get – the people I deal with always get back to you in a quick and professional manner (and with the correct answer). In addition, simple things like 'email a friend' creation of custom pages and finally the ability to use lightboxes to showcase our best products is always good.

Shopcreator: What are Serious Readers future plans?

Serious Readers: Our target is that 60% of Serious Readers' orders will be taken online in 2010 and we are looking to build an international community for those people who take their reading seriously. In 2010 we also plan to expand the Serious offer of best of breed products in the "Everything But The Book" mould to other groups yet to be decided. Imagine "Everything but the Bus" for Serious Travellers or "Everything but the Bread" for Serious Chefs.

To view Serious Readers new site visit www.seriousreaders.com

Shopcreator caught up with niche snowboard and ski retailer Two Seasons after one of their busiest Christmas periods despite the global economic downturn that's crushed many large UK retailers.

Iain Calvert, ecommerce manager of Two Seasons took time out of his busy schedule to tell us about their year on year success and why Shopcreator's Retailer platform is fitting the bill.

Alex: Iain, what background have you come from?

Iain: I come from a Design agency background where I was designing and building websites. I have a lot of experience in Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation from a technical perspective.

Alex: When was the Two Seasons site setup?

Iain: We went live with Shopcreator's Retailer platform in November, 2007.

Alex: Do you have a bricks and mortar retail store?

Iain: We have 16 stores nationwide, predominantly in the midlands with a couple of stores recently opened in the south.

Alex: Why did you feel the need to sell online?

Iain: Originally we were with another local web company which had built us a custom shop. We realised the potential of selling online, especially niche products with what had become a strong brand and needed a platform that allowed us to do a great deal more.

Alex: Did you look at other eCommerce providers before coming to Shopcreator?

Iain: We looked at quite a few, but for the money, Shopcreator had the best functionality and features.

Alex: How many products do you sell online?

Iain: We sell in excess of 1600 products on our online store.

Alex: What are your best sellers?

Iain: Our bestselling products tend to be Niche products such as snowboards, ski's, ski jackets and a brand called Nixon watches.

Alex: Are there any particular features of the Retailer platform that you feel benefit Two Seasons or add value?

Iain: The Bulk product upload is extremely helpful. One of the key drivers of our success is offering as wide a product range as possible. There's also a really nice layer between the administration section and the front end which allows us to completely customise how the store looks, but allows us to use all of Shopcreators' features.

Alex: Have you needed much in the way of support from us?

Iain: I have to say Mark in support is fantastic. He's very knowledgeable and extremely helpful. If he doesn't know something, he will go and ask the developers, find out and come back to me quickly. My experience with some previous 'techy' companies is that they tend to fob you off but the support service is really helpful.

Alex: What marketing activities have you carried out in the past or are currently doing?

Iain: We do a lot of PPC on Google and SEO. We track traffic every morning using Google Analytics or during and after marketing campaigns. We send out promotional email campaigns with discount codes that work really well with a follow up email to remind them of the offer expiration date. We also do seasonal sales email campaigns that do well and result in a big spike of visitors and sales. The email sign up tool is great for importing into our third party email system. We also promote our products through Google base where we see a huge potential.

Alex: What are Two Seasons future plans?

Iain: We will be working to match the same year on year sales growth that we saw last year, as well as looking at a complete site re-design and possibly opening some brand specific sites, like a dedicated Billabong site. We will continue to do a lot more SEO tactics and further sales promotions.

Alex: Excellent, thanks for your time and happy selling for 2009!

If you would like to see what tools are available to help drive traffic to your site and maximise sales, please visit the SEO/Marketing Forum available in the Transact administration system.

For further information regarding Two Seasons, please visit www.twoseasons.com or to find out more about our Retailer platform or opening a free online shop, visit www.shopcreator.com or email sales@shopcreator.com.

The Shopcreator team would like to say a big thank you to those that participated in the beta testing release of the new and improved Transact. The Beta Testing has come to an end and we are pleased to announce that the new and improved Transact platform is now available.

To open a free online shop, click here.

The winner of the beta testing prize draw is Yvonne Carmichael who has won a bottle of champagne. Congratulations Yvonne!

We hope you will all find the new and improved Transact store easy to use and a fantastic tool to help grow your business in this busy retail period.